mtbc | Fast food reliability across nations

When I lived in the US, fast food worked as one would hope: one orders, then the correct items are presented promptly. Last year, I mentioned here how life in Metro Manila was rather different, where some restaurants often had a surprisingly small fraction of advertised menu items even available in the first place, admittedly mostly not fast-food restaurants.

Ordering fast food here in Scotland, we often find that items are available but we are presented with not quite all of them. I suspect it may actually be the most common occurrence that exactly one is missing. Often, when I go back to raise the issue, they seem to recognize quickly that the item still awaits presentation, it still lies on a counter they use in assembling orders. Still, it does rather put one off ordering anything to take away, as first suggested some years ago when my eldest enjoyed a few chicken sandwich orders without any chicken in the bun.

One caveat: the Taco Bell on Graceland Boulevard in Columbus, Ohio, worked rather differently from other American restaurants. One could watch one's food being prepared which was always interesting to see because many staff beavered away, taking a long time to produce not quite the right order rather badly. They stayed in business because one had to return occasionally to reassure oneself that it really was the disaster that one remembered from last time.